Author's Note: Hello everyone! I'm sorry for the delay in posting this chapter -- the holidays got in the way a bit. Hope you enjoy it, though. And Happy New Year!

It was pitch black and quiet, except for the sound of water splashing a little with every step she took. Eleven didn't usually dream the way everyone else did; instead she always wound up in the in-between place where she looked for people. Sometimes she found people by accident in her sleep, people her subconscious wanted her to look for -- sometimes it was her mother, or her aunt Becky, sometimes it was other members of the party or Joyce or even Steve, a lot of the time it was Mike -- but mostly she was just alone in the dark and quiet place.

She hadn't expected to find anyone when she'd gone to sleep that night. She was so tired and she'd been using her abilities a lot over the past forty-eight hours, too much, and most of the people she tended to check up on were sleeping in the same room as her; so she assumed it would just be her in the dark, empty space she went to every night.

It came as a surprise, then, when she heard a familiar voice coming out of the darkness. "Listen kid," the voice said, and she recognized it immediately as Hopper's voice, "I don't know if you can hear me -- I don't know how this works -- but if you can hear me, I want you to know I'm okay. We're okay. ...Stay hidden, keep yourself safe, and I will find you as soon as I can. I promise. Just-- just stay safe, okay? Please. I don't want to lose you."

She couldn't see him anywhere when she looked around the vast, empty darkness, but she could hear is voice clearly. His voice sounded slightly strained, as if he were in pain, but it still came as a great comfort to her and she smiled, tears in her eyes. He was alive, and so was Joyce, and he was talking to her.

She didn't know how to reply, not being able to see him, but now she had more hope than she did before that things might work out after all.

Suddenly she woke up and realized that her cheeks were wet with tears. She quickly wiped them away and took in her surroundings. It was still late at night and she looked around the dark room, seeing that everyone was still seemingly asleep. She heard soft snoring coming from the mattress and saw a lump of blankets that she knew to be Steve, and then noticed that there was someone sitting next to him, slumped against the wall, also asleep, and realized that it was Kali.

El's eyes widened in surprise slightly, but she didn't have long to dwell on it because a small voice pulled her out of her train of thought.

"El?" She turned around to find where the voice was coming from and found Will sitting up and looking at her. "Are you okay?" he asked and she nodded.

"I just..." she started, the trailed off.

"...Do you wanna talk about it?"

El nodded and Will walked over to her, his blanket folded up in his arms, and was careful not to step on any of his sleeping friends. "Let's go downstairs so we don't wake them up," he said, and El slowly stood up, careful not to wake Mike.

The two of them tiptoed down the stairs to the vast, empty room they had first met Kali's gang in and went over to the fire that was still burning lowly in the trash can. It gave off just enough warmth when they were close enough to it and they sat down near it, leaning into each other for extra warmth. Will wrapped his blanket around both of their shoulders a El smiled.

Ever since El closed the gate and finally, properly met Will, they had become like siblings. Will could always tell when El was upset and vice versa, El could always tell when something was wrong with Will.

"What happened?" Will asked eventually.

"I heard him..."

"Who?"

"Hopper."

"Is he okay? ...I--is mom... okay...?" He hesitated before he asked the second question, not sure if wanted to know the answer. He'd been keeping a brave face through all of this, but he was scared. He didn't know what he would do without his mother. He loved Jonathan, of course, but he didn't understand Will in the same way that Joyce did.

El nodded a little in response to the boy's question, "Yes... They're both okay... They're alive..."

Will gave a sigh of relief and leaned into El's side slightly, and neither said another word. It was quiet and peaceful as the surrogate siblings sat in the empty warehouse, the only sound coming from the crackling fire in front them. Neither of them got any more sleep, but they were safe and relatively comfortable, so they didn't mind.

By the time Steve woke up it was late into the morning. He slowly opened his eyes to the blinding light of day that was pouring through the numerous windows of the warehouse and took in his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that Kali was no longer beside him, and he briefly wondered when she had left before he looked around the room to make sure all the kids were alright. Mike, Lucas, and Dustin were all still asleep, but El, Will, and Max were nowhere to be found.

"Shit!" he said, adrenaline suddenly shooting through his veins. He quickly threw the covers off of himself and slipped on his shoes, not bothering to tie them, then practically ran down the stairs to the main part of the warehouse.

"El?" he called out, anxiety clear in his painfully rough voice, "Max? Will?" He reached the large room at the bottom of the stairs and saw that El and Will were sitting in front of the fire, letting out a sigh of relief.

The two children looked back at the babysitter who was now walking towards them, having heard him calling for them. "Steve?" Will asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Where's Max?"

"Kitchen," El said, and Steve stared at her in surprise for a moment.

"...There's a kitchen?"

"Well, there's a toaster and a box of pop tarts," said Will.

Steve sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose for a second in a combination of exasperation and exhaustion, "Where is it?"

El pointed to a doorway at the far end of the warehouse and Steve nodded a little, "Okay. You two stay here."

The kids nodded and the eighteen-year-old made his way to the room El had pointed to. When he got close enough to the doorway he could hear people talking from inside.

"I see you, and I raise you ten," said the voice of young girl who Steve knew must be Max.

"That's was a mistake, young lady."

"We'll see about that. I always know when somebody's bluffing."

The teenager stopped in the doorway, seeing Max, Funshine, and Dottie sitting around a small table, playing cards, a small pile of cash in the middle of said table.

"Max, what the hell are you doing?" Steve said finally, getting the attention of the small group.

"Winning," Max said with a small smirk before turning back to her cards.

Steve rolled his eyes and sat down in an empty chair between Max and Dottie. Max glanced at him as he sat down, a little concerned by the fact that he wasn't reprimanding her for gambling with some people she hardly knew. He still looked like shit; his hair was messy, which was honestly the most worrying thing to her because Steve's hair was always perfect -- it was a point of pride with him -- and he just looked disheveled and... tired in general. He did, at least, seem less feverish, however, and that came as a small relief to the girl.

"You doing okay there, kid?" Funshine asked Steve, "You didn't seem so good yesterday."

"Huh?" Steve said as he came out of his dazed trance, "Oh-- yeah I'm fine."

"You don't look fine," Dottie said, noticing how pale he was, "You want somethin' to eat?"

"No..." the teenager said absentmindedly, starting to stand up again, "Where's Kali?"

"In the room where she keeps all the information about the men we go after," said Funshine, "I'd leave her alone if I were you, though. She doesn't like to be disturbed when she's working."

"She's just gonna have to deal with it," Steve said, making his way to the doorway again. Max watched him go for a few seconds before following quickly behind him.

"Steve, wait!" she said, pausing when she reached the doorway, looking back at the two people sitting at the table, "I'll be right back-- and don't look at my cards. I'll know."

Steve waited for her when he heard her calling after him, "What's wrong?" he asked when she was standing in front of him, a little worry in his voice.

"Are you sure you're okay? You still look like shit."

"Gee, thanks."

Max rolled her eyes, "You know what I mean. You should go back to bed for a while."

"Max, I'll be fine."

"Steve, you didn't even tie your shoes."

The teenager knelt down to tie his shoes then, having forgotten than he hadn't done so earlier. "That's because I thought something happened to you, El and Will. I didn't have time," he said and stood back up, looking down at the girl and seeing how worried she really was. "Hey..." he started again, softening a little, "I'll be fine. I promise."

"Yeah?" Max asked, looking up at him.

"Yeah."

Max nodded slightly, reassured for the time being, and gave the teenager a quick hug before returning to the room that really couldn't be called a kitchen to continue the card game she was playing.

Kali was sitting on the floor of the "war room" as Lucas had called it, sheets of paper from the binder she had gotten the night before spread out around her as she tried to sort through them all. She'd been there since she'd woken up at six...it was now a little after ten.

She looked up when she heard a knock at the doorway and saw Steve standing there. "Can I come in?" he asked and Kali nodded, looking back down at the papers.

"You're up," she said as the boy knelt down next to her amidst the sea of paper.

"Yeah," he said.

"Do you feel any better?"

He shrugged a little, "Sure. I guess."

Kali gave him a side-glance and made a quiet sound of disbelief before returning to her work.

They sat in silence for a while, Kali sorting through papers and Steve watching her, before Kali suddenly stopped, staring at an assortment of pages in front of her that she'd sorted in a specific way. "That's it..." she said softly.

"...What?"

"That's it!" she said again, grabbing one of the pages with one hand and Steve's arm with the other, pulling him towards the door.